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Friday, July 20, 2012

Diana Jo Davies is a well-known photographer and
photojournalist, best known for her images of folk performers, festivals, and
social justice and peace movements during the 1960s and 1970s. The Social
Justice Series of the Davies Collection holds some of her most powerful images,
a number of which document the Poor People’s March on Washington.

The Poor People’s
March on Washington, also known as the Poor People’s Campaign, was a
socio-economic movement primarily concerned with gaining economic justice and
housing for the American poor. It united races and cultures under one social
justice movement. The march began in Marks, Mississippi in May 1968, shortly
after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The campaign was to
champion King’s final cause: to urge the federal government to pass the
“Economic Bill of Rights.” This bill of rights would make assisting the poor a
priority, providing employment, income, and housing to all Americans. Once in
Washington, D.C., the protesters rallied at government buildings and built an
encampment, dubbed “Resurrection City,” around the Washington Monument. Though
the Economic Bill of Rights was never passed, the campaign’s goal of
making poverty visible and impossible to ignore was certainly accomplished, as Diana Davies' photographs of the movement show. By placing
herself inside the action and joining the Poor People’s March, she was able to
more intimately capture the movement from the perspective of its participants.

For the past three months I have had the pleasure of delving
deep into the Diana Davies Photograph Collection, which is housed in the Ralph
Rinzler Folklife Archives. Poring over countless negatives, contact sheets, and
prints from the Social Justice Series has been a slow process, but also a
rewarding and fascinating one. In search of the most striking photographs from
the Poor People’s March on Washington, I have selected, scanned, and edited a
number of these amazing images, and would like to share some of the most powerful.

Songleaders, activists, and participants gather in Resurrection City at the Poor People's March on Washington, June 1968.

People gather on the Mall in Washington, D.C. for the Solidarity Day "Juneteenth" Rally, June 19, 1968.

Cops run people out of Resurrection City during the Poor People's March on Washington, June 25, 1968.

Seeing Davies’ photographs of the Poor People’s March on
Washington is like looking through a window to the past. Through her
photographs, Davies not only documentsthe
people, places, and actions of the Poor People’s March; the emotions and
desires behind this important civil rights movement are captured as well. These
powerful images hold great historical significance and allow for a more
thorough understanding of the movement and what it meant for so many people. I
have certainly learned a lot from these photographs, and am so glad to have had
the wonderful opportunity of working with them.

To see more
photographs from the Diana Davies Social Justice Series, click here.

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